Record and Guide





873





TUDT icum-O^-'. aiur.M J»l»^ 1R68.





there can be no real confidence in the commercial outlook
abroad.





^                                       ESTABLISHED-^'fi^ARPH 21M> 1868.

Dented \o R,ea,l Estate, BuiLdiKg AR,cj<iTEeTtJi^E.HoiisEMou)DECciHATiorf.
Bi/sii^ESS AftoTheses of GeHeR^L 1i^ter.esi„

PRICE    PER   YEAR,   IN   ADVANCE,   SIX   DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.
TBLEPHONB,                _     .     .     .      .      Coktlandt 1370

Oommanloatione should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Veaey Street.

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.___________________________

"Entered al llie Posl-officeal New Yoric, N. Y., as secondrclass matter."





Vol. LIX.





MAY  22, 1897.





No. 1,523





THE power for working the stock market in the past week
has been largely furnished from the flue plants established
in the legislative halls at Washington and at Springfield, 111.
The mildness and good sense of the President's message on
Cuba, which disappointed the bears ou Monday, was later off¬
set, in their minds at least, by the strength of the discussion in
the Senate and tbe evident desire of the House to participate in
iingoistic dissipations. The movements of Chicago Gas in ad-
Tance of favorable or unfavorable action, as happened to be
the case, by the Illinois Legislature, suggest a connection be¬
tween legislation and speculation more direct aud disgraceful
than auy Washiogton has atibrded, and that ia saying not a
little. However, these inflaeucea, together with the liquidation
In the Coalers, and that that gold exports always cause have
increased the gloom of an already unsatisfactory situation. The
consolidation of the Third National Bank with the City Bank,
admittedly made advisable by tfle failure of the first named to
do a sufficiently paying business, and the light thrown on the
general situation by declines in the stocks of the anthracite
properties do not encourage a veiy rosy view. The fact is that
Congress has utterly disappointed the commercial community,
so that valuable time has beeu lost, which cannot be regained,
and we will have to lower our expectations for this year in con¬
sequence. That gold continues to go out in small quantities is
not so satisfactory a symptom aa some seem to imagine it, be¬
cause it reveals a weakness that it were better did not exist.





NOW that property owners are taking a hand in the fight
between the Metropolitan Traction Company and the
Third Avenue Eailroad Company over tbe Sixth and Eighth
avenue lines why doesn't it occur to them that the city at large
has interests involved in the contest which ought to be cham¬
pioned ?   We have almost reached that stage in our long career
of municipal profligacy wherein the city haa no further fran¬
chises to bestow upou private corporationa.   Almost the last
stick and stiver of our patrimony haa been squandered.   The
streets have heen given away on the surface and under the sur¬
face and the city ia receiving for the enormously valuable priv¬
ileges it has parted with uot a tithe of the recompense which a
wiser policy would have secured for us.   It is painful to think
of the straits the Alderman of the future will be in for boodle.
There won't be a cobblestone on Manhattan Island for him to
" dicker " over.   Property owners must observe with pleasure
that right along with this princely largess to corporations
tas hills are yearly increasing and the prospects are that they
will move upward still more rapidly when the Barnum ideal
of Greater New York is fully realized.   If the city's interests
in its franchises had been adequately looked after, protected
and   secured, for instance,   as   they   are   in   every   second-
rate   European   town.   New    York   would   have   other   re¬
sources  for  its   advancement   and improvement than   those
obtained    by   taxing    its    citizens.     It   is    almost   useless
to advocate now a more  enlightened and business-like pol¬
icy.   We have got ao near to the end of our tether that per¬
haps it is as well to finish the idiocy in style '' for the ends of
the earth to aee."   But we ought not to fool ourselves aa to the
iuevitable consequencea.   We talk about making New York a
really great city, and the scheme we have bit on of annexing
square miles of agricultural land which isn't urban and won't
be urban for many generations and faking it into big figures, is
worthy of a circua bill-post writer.    Things are not truly en¬
larged hy a magnifying glass.   At the same time we ignore the
solid method of aggrandizing the city by a wise and business¬
like administration of its affairs.   If the money that corpora¬
tions ought reasonably to pay for privileges granted to them by
the city were in the municipal treasury. New York conld be
steadily improved and beautified in a measure that is impos¬
sible at the expense of the already well-burdened taxpayer.





PKACTICALLY the Greco-Turkish war is ended, hut the
cabled reports of Lord Salisbury's recent speech show the
situation to be still a serious one.   His remarks can only be
taken as an entire disapproval of Turkey's conditions for peace,
and although we doubt that the Sultan will not ultimately he
induced to hear reason, the future depends upon negotiations
between himself and  the Powers.   Greece cannot be said to
have any part, but to wait for what they may decide.   Christian
public opinion will not tolerate the return to Turkey of any
territory once taken away f i--om it.   No ministry that sanctioned
the recession of: Thessaly could live a day in either   Great
Britain, France or Italy, and probably not in Germany, not
because public oi>inion in Germany effects ministries there so
much as because Germany holds, it ia estimated, 500,000,000
francs of Grecian aecuritiea, aud a loss of territory would also
he a lessening of even the little power Greece has to meet her
obligations.    The   seriousness of the situation alluded to by
Lord Salisliury probably arises from the   fact that, in face
of Turkey's perfect right to demand an indemnity and terri¬
tory being out of the question, Greece has nothing to pay with.
Guarantees  for  future   good   conduct  will   surely   he    in¬
sisted upon,  aud there   may   be   some   foreign   suptrvision
in   order   to   make   lb. ni   valuable.    Railroad   dividends   in
England   have   been   so   satisfactory   this   year as   to call
fof comparison witb the hest   years   seen for  twenty years
past and this accounts for the favor " Home Kails," as they are
called, are receiving from the investor.   The Continuance of
such favor depends upon whether the business which has war¬
ranted the dividends cau last, and this question the buyers of
these securities seem to have answered affirmatively.   As an
illustration of how trade iu Cuba is being utterly destroyed the
figures for sugar and tobacco prodtiction and exportation are
conclusive.   The production of sugar fell from 1,00-J,264 tons
in 1895 to 225,221 tons in 1896. The tobacco crop waa 85,000
bales as compared with an average yield in normal years of
560,000 bales, while the coming crop will show a further fall¬
ing off.   Looking at the loss to  labor aud capital theae figurea
represent, the stories we hear of destitution in the islaufl are
quite credible.   When the actiou of Great Britain in South
Africa, as was the case recently, is given as a reason for lower
prices on the Berlin Bourse, we can conceive how deep is the
prejudice against the firat-uamed power in Germany, and how
easilyit could become mischievous if given the right oppor¬
tunity, UutU the South African question is satisfactorily settled





WHILE we are complaining of the great injury that has
been done New York City from without, it is hard to
have also to complain of a considerable one—though infinitely
small compared with that contained in the Charter for Greater
New York—done within our midst. This injury consists in the
adoption of the curved approach to Third Avenue Bridge from
the east by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. As laid
down on the plana this makes the bridge look like a dog with
two tails, one curly and tbe other bent, carried as far apart as a
comraon point of junction with the body will allow. If thisplan
is carried out, we will suggest that the name of the bridge be
changed from the Third Avenue Bridge to the Pons Asinorum,
not because, like the third problem iu Euclid, so named, an ass
cannot get over it, but aa a proper recognition of the intelligence
wbich created it. The ridiculous approach from Lenox avenue
is had enough, tbat is already built and cannot now be prevented,
but the bandy road it is proposed to make to reach it from tha
east is beyond expreaaiou absurd. We defy the experience of
the world to produce another such absnrdityin bridge building.
The indignation of the property owners and residents
of the vicinage, expressed at meetings held recently to
protest against the execution of this plan, is perfectly
natural and justifiable. The Board is reported to have been
swayed in making their decision by reasons of economy. This
is not less absurd than the two-tailed bridge itself. The thing
cannot aland forever. Sorae day a direct approach will be
built and the one now proposed removed and in thia way the
ultimate coat of the work largely and unduly increased. What
we will do in the meantime, if the plan as now laid down is car¬
ried out, it is hard to say. It will be difficult to keep foreign
visitors from croaaing the bridge if they want to, and yet they
ought not to he allowed to do so for our own credit as a nation
boasting of its wealth of engineering skill. It will not be possi¬
ble to hide it from observationby any sort of covering or shield.
Perhaps the btst thing we can do, if the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment won't change their minds and persistin the plan
approved by them the other day being carried out, will be to
label the work aaa specimen of thebiimor supposed to he pecu¬
liar to us as a nation aud which foreigners find so difficult to
understand, and carry it off' that way.





JUDGE BEACH, having disposed of the idea that the city
has a right to purchase the Eighth avenue car line, what
are we now to expect from the waning elements that are pre-